Refreshing All Slides Safely in a Workday OfficeConnect PowerPoint Deck

The disciplined refresh workflow that keeps Workday OfficeConnect PowerPoint decks consistent — never a deck with mixed-period numbers.
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The single failure mode that destroys a board-pack workflow is shipping a deck where some slides have current numbers and others have last month’s. Recipients lose trust in every number on every page. This article documents the refresh discipline that prevents it.

If you’re still building your first linked deck, start with OfficeConnect for PowerPoint and Designing a Board Pack Template.

The refresh order rule

Always refresh in this order:

  1. Excel — open the source workbook, click OfficeConnect → Refresh, wait for completion, save and close
  2. PowerPoint — open the deck, click OfficeConnect → Refresh Links, wait for completion, save and close

Doing PowerPoint first pulls whatever is currently in the Excel file, which may be last month’s data if Excel wasn’t refreshed.

Step 1 — Refresh Excel first

1
Open the source workbook Open the Excel workbook that backs the deck. Confirm it’s the right one — check the filename and time period in the workbook’s metadata.
2
Update period elements if needed If you’re producing the deck for a new month, update the Time elements first (e.g., change Mar 2026 to Apr 2026). If you’re using relative dates like Current Period, no edit is needed — refresh will roll forward automatically.
3
Click Refresh and wait for completion Click the OfficeConnect ribbon Refresh. Wait until the status bar shows refresh complete — don’t start clicking around prematurely.
4
Spot-check key numbers Eyeball revenue, EBITDA, and headcount. If anything looks off (sign flip, wrong magnitude), debug in Excel before opening PowerPoint.
5
Save and close Save the workbook. Close it. (Leaving it open during PowerPoint refresh is technically fine but adds risk of accidental edits.)

Step 2 — Refresh PowerPoint

6
Open the deck Open the PowerPoint deck. Wait for OfficeConnect to detect the linked workbook.
7
Refresh Links OfficeConnect ribbon → Refresh Links. Every linked table and chart updates from the Excel source. This takes 10-60 seconds depending on the number of linked elements.
8
Watch for refresh errors If a link fails to refresh, PowerPoint flags it. Common causes: the workbook moved, was renamed, or a named range was deleted. See Recovering Broken Links.

Step 3 — Visual scan every slide

This is the step everyone skips and everyone regrets.

9
Click through every slide

Go to slide 1 and use the right-arrow key to step through the whole deck. On each slide, check:

  • The time period in headers and titles is correct
  • Numbers are in the expected ranges
  • Charts are populated (no blank chart frames)
  • Tables don’t show n/a or #REF placeholders
10
Spot-check three numbers against Excel Pick three numbers on different slides and verify they match the Excel workbook. If they don’t, a refresh didn’t propagate — return to Step 6.

Step 4 — Lock the deck before distribution

11
Break links for the distributed copy (optional)

For the version you actually email or post, you may want to break links so recipients can’t accidentally refresh and pull future data. See Recovering Broken Links for the break-link procedure.

Keep the live version with intact links in your team’s working folder for next month.

Tip A cleaner pattern: maintain the live linked deck as BoardPack_Apr2026_LIVE.pptx and ship a static copy as BoardPack_Apr2026.pptx with links broken. Naming makes the difference obvious.

What to do if refresh fails mid-deck

If PowerPoint shows some slides refreshed and others didn’t:

12
Don't save yet Preserve your ability to undo — do not save the partially-refreshed deck.
13
Run Refresh Links again Click Refresh Links a second time — most transient failures clear on retry.
14
Check the named range if a specific slide consistently fails If one slide keeps failing, inspect the linked named range in the Excel source — it may have been renamed or deleted.
15
Follow the link-repair procedure if needed See Recovering Broken Links for the full repair procedure.

Common refresh-day mistakes

MistakeConsequenceFix
Refresh PowerPoint without refreshing Excel firstDeck shows last period’s dataRefresh in the right order
Refresh only the “problem” slideMixed-period deckAlways refresh-all, never partial
Skip the visual scanShip a broken slideBuild the scan into your checklist
Refresh into the master templatePollute the template for next monthAlways copy template to a dated file first
Save the linked deck without breaking links for distributionRecipients may unintentionally refresh and see unfinalized dataBreak links on the distributed copy

Result

Every deck you ship has a consistent point-in-time view of the data, with no mixed-period surprises and a documented procedure your team can follow in 10 minutes a month.

Next steps

Last modified May 19, 2026: Rename 'Get Started' section to 'Wiki' site-wide (6ebea16d)